


All the Possibilities of Your Encounter

by vodka_tonic



Series: Encounter [2]
Category: Tenet (2020)
Genre: M/M, Poems, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26492083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vodka_tonic/pseuds/vodka_tonic
Summary: The Protagonist has been thinking about his encounter with Neil.
Relationships: Neil & The Protagonist (Tenet), Neil/The Protagonist (Tenet)
Series: Encounter [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926034
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	All the Possibilities of Your Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> Initially I wrote this poem in Chinese Mandarin, and I tried to translate it into English.  
> Apologize for the potential grammatical mistakes.  
> 阿就翻得很爛的英文版（幹）

> Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
> 
> Missing me one place search another,
> 
> I stop somewhere waiting for you.
> 
> _Walt Whitman,_ _Song of myself, Section 52_

You've been pondering

about all the possibilities of your encounter

After that one unexploded bomb

Didn't explode

Along with time, clues, all the sounds

and the footprints that he left,

you've been searching for him

You thought

the fate of encounters

are actually the sums of the distance that two entities make

when moving toward each others

And he has done his part.

So the rest, shall depends on you

In the first year, you left your footprints

in every departments of physics in universities

all over England.

You imagined, that your encounter

would be like a detective story,

and will show itself like a straw in the wind

if you can make the correct inference.

You browsed over the student rosters,

And realized the fact

that the only objective fact you know about him

is a first name

that can't even define him

but only marks him. 

You visited every classes that there's a boy

named Neil

Again and again,

you set up meetings with

these confused boys

that you've never met before

You apologized, you said goodbye,

and crossed out another name

from the list filled with endless names.

In the second year,

in all the checkpoints and military bases.

You imagined,

maybe your encounter will be like an old spy movie,

and will unfold itself

if you look carefully enough.

And yet,

you were just playing the same game all over again.

All you got was another list

filled with endless crossed-out names

For each time you tried, you got tireder,

for both your mind and your body.

In the third year,

you once roved around a specific area

for hundred days

Just because you believe

that you were looking at the truth, the correct timing

And if you didn't meet him for the first, the second or the third time,

it's simply because

you missed the best chance.

You've lived

19th of February of the fourth year

for three times.

Twice for 27th of June,

and 2nd of December, ten times.

You went back to the same place, over and over again,

hoping it would be different this time

But it's stay the same

Empty and lonely

All you have witnessed,

is many of yourselves visiting from the past of your past

melancholily wondering

and gathering there

like a group of ghosts

For many years,

this is how you imagine your encounter:

Just like how he strode over time

holding the facts about you in his hands

And just like how he searched for you,

heading to you even when you didn't know him yet,

you must, also,

carefully searching for the clues,

and head to him even when he doesn't know you yet.

But you forget

the fact that you don't really have many clues about him

And the version of you that he knew

was even more than your current self.

You forget

that your encounter

doesn't have to be two people

both living in the long waiting and pain

Because, to meet you,

he has already

served the sentence

that the jail name time

set up for both of you.

Your encounter is a book that you already read the ending,

now you must find out how will it begins

You guess

that there're millions of possibilities of your encounter

You know

when you meet him again

that moment will save the past, and even future

So you always carry that moment

carefully

in your hands

in your heart

like protecting the unique red rose on your planet.

But your encounter

might also be like this:

In a coffeehouse, you pick up the wrong coffee from each others.

Or maybe, on a party, across the crowded room,

you see him drinking vodka tonic

and you think he's more beautiful than ever.

you might even already

have passed by each other on the street

for countless time

without realizing each other's presence

Just like a pair of normal lovers

on normal, traditional timeline

After all, your encounter itself

is already a miracle

There's no way to add anything more

Fifth year, one day in spring,

you'll board an Edinburgh-bound train

You'll search for the seat

that marked on the ticket you grip in your hand.

You'll stop at carriage six, seat 15A

and he'll be there when you are unsuspected.

You'll see him

sitting on the other side of the table

leaning on the window

reading a poetry collection

The sunset will fall into the carriage

and shines on his elegant face

Before that moment,

you have imagined

all the possibilities of your encounter

But you never expected this,

a quiet, ordinary moment

But it's also the same moment

so solemn

in the testimony of sunset.

You will put down your baggage,

sit down in front of him.

The young English man will look up, looking across the table at you,

and you'll see he smiles at you, a stranger he doesn't know

But feel so familiar

When you look into his pale blue eyes,

you'll realized

that your encounter

might have nothing to do with clues, inferences

or plans

It might just be you

simply walk toward him, ordinarily, through time

and he's also been here, ordinarily,

waiting for you.


End file.
